Status and content updates for Auteureist™

Monthly Archives: January 2011

If you participated in and won NaNoWriMo 2010 per the Auteureist contest, you should be getting a promo code for your free copy. If you don’t receive it please email the support email address and let me know.

The short answer, is “no”. There is no “backdoor” or secret way for me to recover your password. That’s why it’s secret. So if you lose your password or forget it, the only thing you can do is make sure you have an exported backup of your database on your desktop or laptop.

What you will have to do is, delete the app from your device. This also deletes your database, on-device backup, and settings. Sorry, this is how Apple makes it work. Once you delete the app, go ahead and redownload it from the AppStore. You won’t be charged a second time for redownloading it. Then launch it and set your new password. Don’t forget this one, OK? If you think you’ll forget it or don’t want one, just hit the Cancel button to not set a password. I’ll explain how to move your exported database back onto the device in another blog entry. One thing I have heard back in response to this is: “I hate your app, you don’t care about your customers.” or, “What type of app is this? What’s with all the warnings in red on your website? It’s [insert explitive]” Well that’s the reason for the red warnings. Obviously, if you had read them and paid attention, you wouldn’t have to email me begging me to break in and recover your password. Thankfully, this type of response is rare. But it is IS your device, it IS your writing, it IS your password. The app and I do the best we can to protect your writing from accidental loss, its up to you to protect it from other types of loss. That includes loss by forgetting your password.

The app doesn’t require a password, and imposes no restrictions on a password (apart from not having a single hypen (-) as a password. It’s up to you. So, let’s go through some steps in dealing with passwords:

When you first start the app, you will be presented with a screen that looks like:

If you hit the Cancel button at this point you will be telling Auteureist™ not to use a password, and you won’t be prompted for a password each time you start the app. If you type something in, and hit Enter, whatever you type is your password. HINT: WATCH what you type. SEE it. Don’t touch type and assume you know the password. Don’t forget it.

The next time you start the app, you will get a similar screen:

Just type in the same password.

What if you want to change or delete your password? You can do this from the preferences screen. Tap the Gear button on the main screen: Then scroll down until you get to the Password Reset section and tap on it:

You’ll get an alert asking for your new password:

Type in your new password. Again, pay attention and watch what you type. Remember it. You won’t get a confirmation.

If you want to stop using the a password all together, then type a single hyphen (-) into the Password alert:

You’ll get a secondary alert telling you the password has been removed:

Now each time you start the app, you’ll bypass the Password screen. So, do you need to use a password? That’s depends if you are writing sensitive/personal things you don’t want others to view. Otherwise, it may be easier not having a password.

Is the password crack-proof? No, it’s meant to protect casual users. It won’t keep experts from getting into your writing.

I hope that helps. Remember its your writing, and your responsibility to protect it. The app provides tools to help, but in the end its you.

Auteureist 2.01 for the iPhone has been “Waiting for Review” by Apple. Hopefully, it will be out soon.In other news, the next release for both platforms will be 2.1 and is being tested. This version will be more stable and have a totally redone Synchronization screen. I really hated the old one. It was pretty “brute-force” and looks ugly on the iPad. It’s very disorganized. Here it is on the iPhone:

And on the iPad:

The new one on the iPad:

And on the iPhone:

The new one is more polished and has been simplified and I believe more stable and all options work properly.Version 2.1 will be submitted for approval soon after 2.01 for the iPhone is released.

The good news is, there have been no new major bugs reported after 2.01 of the iPad version came out. Things seem to have calmed down.Also, I’ve updated the mobile website and fixed the forums. If you’re not aware of the mobile site, you can get to it from the “chat bubble button” on the About Screen. You can join the forums, as well as report bugs and enhancements from the site. Check it out!

I’m also slowly fleshing out the documentation on the product website.Sent from Auteureist™ on iPad – http://auteureist.com/

Yes, there will be more updates. As usual, there will be the stuff I announce and a few surprises. Auteureist™ 2.0 introduce Dropbox integration, RTF exports, as well as “zipping” your email exports as attachments. The first major feature to be in 2.1 will be printing:

Here you can see the new Action icon which Apple wants us to use, and the Print option on the iPhone.

And the version on the iPad. Yes it does print and is being tested. Printing will be available from the text editing view (these screenshots) as well as from the Synchronization screen.

Yes there will be another “Mode” for purchase on both the iPhone and iPad but that won’t be in 2.1.

This is another in the series of hopefully useful articles on using Auteureist™ The first thing you do (even before you start the app for the first time) is set up some global information that is used by the app. These settings are common between the iPhone and iPad versions so the information is the same (albeit the screenshots will be different.) These are found in the Settings App on the home screen of your device. Launch the settings app and scroll down until you find the Auteureist™ item.

You will be presented with a scrolling list divided into sections:

I’ll go through the various sections and settings.

= Section: Export Email • “Export Email”. Here you can enter your own email address. This will facilitate email what you write to yourself (a quick way of getting what you write onto your desk or laptop. This email is picked up automatically by various functions like exporting and posting. You should note that future releases will use this information more consistently.

= Section: Posterous Blog • Posterous Email This item is an email address you use to post to your Posterous blog. This is the default email to use. You can override this setting in the individual blog setup, or at the time you actually post a blog entry to Posterous. This setting must be filled in with a valid Posterous email to enable Posterous support.

= Section: Tumblr • Tumblr Email This item is an email address you get from the Tubmlr “Goodies” page of your account. This is NOT the email you used to set up Tumblr, but rather, the one you post to.

= Section: Twitter This section allows posting to your Twitter stream. You need to have JournalMode and you need to authorize the app with Twitter (done the first time you try to post). • Username

This is your Twitter user name and represents your Twitter stream. • Password This is your Twitter account password.

= Section: Dropbox

This section controls access to your Dropbox account, which can be used for backing, restoring, and archiving your writing database.

• Dropbox Email This is your Dropbox account’s email address that you use to log in with. You will be prompted for a password each time you try to use your Dropbox. This is per the Dropbox developer agreement.

= Section: Accessability This controls what functions are allowed to use Auteureist™.

• Network Functions This switch controls whether Auteureist™ can access the network (cellular and wifi). This overrides the device’s settings if they are on. You should note that turning this off will deny access to certain functions such as the built-in web browser, exporting via wireless or the web server, etc.

• Location Functions This switch controls whether Auteureist™ can determine your GPS location. This overrides the device’s settings if they are on. This will disable determining and including your location when you create a journal entry in the Lifestream stream.

• Falling Banner This switch will turn off the falling blue banner that is shown when you start the app. This banner is used to provide important information about the applicaiton, updates, etc. It is NEVER used for advertising purposes. Some people find it annoying, so you can now turn it off and on as you wish.

= Section: Skin UI

• Use Skin

This switch determines whether the product skin is enabled. If it is turned off, the default device appearance is used for most elements of the UI:

If you turn the switch on, the app UI is colored with the Auteureist™ product colors:

Choose the look you prefer. No, you can’t invent your own skin. Also, on the iPad the switch is there, but it is disabled due some issues with how the iPad highlights custom list elements. Once I can resolve the issue, the feature will be enabled on the iPad.

Once you set the settings, you can start the app for the first time, or restart it it if if it is running in order for the changes to take effect.

One thing I should make clear, is that NONE of your information, location, writing is ever sent up to me, the Auteureist™ web sites, or anyone else. Your information is yours and always stays on your device unless you explicitly send it somewhere.

The keyboard accessory view is the toolbar you’ll see most frequently after that of the main toolbar that is found on the top of the screen. Here is a screenshot of the keyboard and accessory view as it is displayed in the iPhone version of Auteureist™. This is identical to the one found in the iPad version, so everything here applies to both.

To make it clearer, here is the isolated toolbar:

So what is this and how do you use it?

The basic process involves a couple of steps:

1 – Select a word or phrase in your writing. 2 – Copy it (Don’t skip this step). 3 – Tap one of the buttons. So what do the buttons do? From left to right:

1 – The magnifying glass – Tapping this after completing the above steps, will invoke the thesaurus (or the rhyming dictionary if you are working on a poem). This requires network connectivity.

2 – Person button – Tapping this will add the selected and copied text as a new character. The character will show up in the characters display for the element as well as the writing globally. If you add a character that already exists, you’ll get an alert.

3 – People button – Tapping this will add the selected and copied text as an alias for a character. If there are multiple characters in the element you will be prompted for the character to use for the alias. A duplicate alias will cause an alert.

4 – Location button – Tapping this after completing the above steps, will add the selected and copied text as a new location. The location will show up in the locations display for the element as well as the writing globally. If you add a location that already exists, you’ll get an alert.

5 – Research button – Tapping this button will switch to the Research List View where you can create new research notes attached to the element and writing.